If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

My system uses 1/8" Amsteel throughout. Hang angle is not critical so strap height can be a consistent 6'-8" up the tree. The foot end uses a fixed loop attached to the hammock with a carabiner:

The suspension runs to the tree strap and becomes the tarp ridge line over to the other tree:

Then down to the head end of the hammock using the sliding toggle for adjustment:

I used 3" of a broom handle painted brightly instead of heavy deer antler. As a true SLS this line can span my goal of 32 feet. I could not be happier with this outcome. The sliding toggle would be easier to adjust in the cold, I'd think. Hanging from this is solid, though one should be careful that the toggle does not pull through the carabiner. The entire system fits in a tyvek envelope:

It could be lighter with soft shackles, right, but carabiners are so easy to clip! It packs down smaller than my GT UL:
.

Last edited by MDSH; 02-12-2013 at 20:09.

Mike

Learn to survive and thrive in any situation, for you never know what might happen. Love family and friends passionately. Suffer no fool. Know your purpose in life and follow it with all your heart.

This certainly makes adjusting your SLS easier and gives you total range of adjustment.

However, I caution everyone that hang angles are always important. Yes the 1/8" amsteel will take a log of load, but that load goes to the trees we hang from. Remember, elephants in Africa get their food by pushing trees over with their trunk to eat the foliage. Just sayin'

This certainly makes adjusting your SLS easier and gives you total range of adjustment.

However, I caution everyone that hang angles are always important. Yes the 1/8" amsteel will take a log of load, but that load goes to the trees we hang from. Remember, elephants in Africa get their food by pushing trees over with their trunk to eat the foliage. Just sayin'

I appreciate your caution, Mike, and have been thinking about a better tree strap system.

My younger son is a really big guy and I watched two pine trees bend in on his hammock once, putting him on the ground.

When I quit laughing ...

Though I doubt the trees were amused ...

We got him moved to pillars commensurate with his heft.

In the meantime, given trees that can hold, it seems to me that the best straps would distribute the load most widely, which means all the way around the circumference of the tree rather on the back side only.

There's a way to do that that also allows for differing diameters. It puts as much pressure on the front of the tree toward the hammock as there might be on the back side away from it.

Would that solve the problem or does the elephant-type toppling stress worry you more?

.

Last edited by MDSH; 02-11-2013 at 22:16.

Mike

Learn to survive and thrive in any situation, for you never know what might happen. Love family and friends passionately. Suffer no fool. Know your purpose in life and follow it with all your heart.

I appreciate your caution, Mike, and have been thinking about a better tree strap system.

My younger son is a really big guy and I watched two pine trees bend in on his hammock once, putting him on the ground.

When I quit laughing ...

Though I doubt the trees were amused ...

We got him moved to pillars commensurate with his heft.

In the meantime, given trees that can hold, it seems to me that the best straps would distribute the load most widely, which means all the way around the circumference of the tree rather on the back side only.

There's a way to do that that also allows for differing diameters. It puts as much pressure on the front of the tree toward the hammock as there might be on the back side away from it.

Would that solve the problem or does the elephant-type toppling stress worry you more?

.

It doesn't make any difference what kind of straps are used. All of the force is vectored directly in the direction of the hammock, trying to pull the tree down.

This sounds great. My hammock has an Srl, which keeps my angle constant. I think ill give this a try. Can you give us a video? Thanks

Thanks, gary. The SRL needs to be as beefy as the rest of the system because the force of a shallower hang angle runs right through it. Everything needs to be stronger because of the shallow angles employed. My tree huggers, for instance, are the heavy duty ones from Strapworks.

As shown this is not a true SLS such as headchange4u, bearchaser, and olddog use -- but I can go to one like theirs easily by tying alpine loops in the line for hanging the hammock. Olddog has burried loops in his and I'm wondering if prusiks would work.

.

Mike

Learn to survive and thrive in any situation, for you never know what might happen. Love family and friends passionately. Suffer no fool. Know your purpose in life and follow it with all your heart.

Thanks to Allen and Tendertoe I have improved my already simple SLS with a pinned slip knot instead of using the wooden toggle with a hole in it. It holds just fine. The pin is a cheap aluminum stake cut down with the hook closed and painted brightly.

Mike

Learn to survive and thrive in any situation, for you never know what might happen. Love family and friends passionately. Suffer no fool. Know your purpose in life and follow it with all your heart.